LAS VEGAS-Few companies are as associated with excess as Monster. This is a company that made its name by slapping what might generously be called premium price tags on HDMI and speaker cables, and aggressively courting television retailers to push their wares on consumers by promising them better picture quality with their investment. The key: a system of "speed ratings" that purport to show that consumers need faster, more expensive cables for better picture quality.

More From Popular Mechanics

Of course, unlike old analog A/V set-ups, where shoddy cables had the potential to hurt sound quality, digital HDMI cables basically transmit a whole bunch of ones and zeros. No matter how pricey your cable is, those ones and zeros remain the same. In our own lab tests, none of our seasoned testers could notice any difference between a $150 Monster cable and a $10 cable found online.

So how does a company like Monster respond to a down economy? By releasing (relatively) budget-priced cable that takes direct aim at the no-name Internet-sold competition. "It's called HDMI Basic," Head Monster Noel Lee said from atop his trademark Segway at Monster's CES press conference this morning. "And what speed is it? We're not speed rating it." HDMI Basic will go for $39 for a one meter cable (still about 6 times as much as a comparable cable on sites such as Newegg.com), and come in a nondescript cardboard box. Lee claimed the box was "biodegradable", but it is so plain and ugly that seems to be designed to repel customers towards their higher-margin alternatives.

Of course, Monster isn't going to let a recession get in the way with their core business: expensive cables that promise superior picture quality. Monster is also coming out with its "fastest" and flashiest cable yet: the 21 gigabytes per second "Hyperspeed Cable," which will cost $200 for 4 feet and up to $1800 for 100 ft.

"When things are going downhill, you have to fight to go uphill," Lee said.

Monster is also making other moves: the company is following up its Dr. Dre-endorsed Beats over-the-ear headphones with a set of in-ear headphones. Monster claims that its "Turbine" headphones are the "best-sounding in-ear headphones on the market"—a lofty claim that we will put to the test with an upcoming review.

Monster's also expanding its core cable business from the home theater market to the PC market, teaming with HP and releasing a series of co-branded products, beginning with PC-specific HDMI cables (how these differ from home theater HDMI cables is a mystery), and power strips, similar to ones already out their from companies such as Belkin, which snuff out vampire power waste by cutting power to appliances that aren't in use. —Seth Porges